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Crowdemand hopes to transform e-commerce by betting on luxe
limited editions made (almost) just for you. Partnerships with
big designers like Cynthia Rowley are a major piece of that
puzzle.

Cynthia Rowley is a top women’s wear
designer with six brick-and-mortar stores around the country.
However, lately she’s doing more than tending to her
multi-million dollar fashion line
and restocking her namesake boutiques. Lines like hers are
helping to reshape e-commerce by pioneering the concept of
“crowd commerce.”

Designers can’t always convince department store buyers to take
risks on new styles. Meanwhile, style houses compete with
so-called “fast-fashion” brands whose goods are both plentiful
and affordable. But since these lower-end brands tend to
overproduce, the model is wasteful and makes it hard for shoppers
to dress distinctively. “It’s not sustainable, it’s financially
inefficient,” says Yaniv Reeis.

Reeis is a co-founder of startup Crowdemand along with Liat Cohen and Marat
Stary. The three childhood friends combined their respective
backgrounds in cyber security, tech consulting and advertising
to launch a site that features limited edition pieces for
pre-order.

The site strategically partners with high-end, established
designers. This provides visibility and makes it possible to move
items through production and delivery in just eight to 12 weeks.
(By comparison, emerging lines might need two to three months to
ship). When minimum production numbers are met, credit cards are
charged and pieces are put into production.

Clothing and accessories are priced from $245 to $2,000. “The
Crowdemand experience is still a luxury segment,” says co-founder
Stary. “Competing at price is just not a game to enter in the
e-commerce space.”

Last year, Rowley met the Crowdemand founders at a fashion trade
show and their startup idea piqued her interest. She’s been
experimenting with e-commerce to introduce new products, starting
with Exhibition A, a site she co-founded which sells limited
editions of work by top contemporary artists. She has also
launched an eyewear line that competed directly with Warby
Parker, and formed a partnership with Birchbox that unveiled her
beauty collection. The privately-held company does not publicly
report revenues for these online ventures.

“We were always enthusiastic about new ways that we can create a
conversation with the Cynthia Rowley girl,” says the designer. “I
believe in a direct, online-only commerce model.”

Crowdemand allows designers like Rowley to test the market with
new ideas through special campaigns such as “Back by Popular
Demand,” where designers resurrect popular pieces from past
seasons. It allows designers to test new products and aggregate
demand in ways they can’t in traditional retail environments.

“This is definitely a way where we can own the space for a few
weeks and have access to our customer’s feedback before the
clothing hits the selling floor,” Rowley says.

The first month: launching and troubleshooting

Crowdemand went live on April 8 exclusively featuring Cynthia
Rowley designs. It then staggered launches with lines from
contemporary line Whit and
Brazil-based Meskita
throughout the month.

After Rowley’s two-week campaign, all pieces reached at least
half the minimum number required for a successful campaign.
Cynthia Rowley and Crowdemand plan to discuss another campaign
for a future date.

Reeis says because it built the core technology, CMS and
analytics from scratch, it remains agile and can troubleshoot
during designer launch dates. But Marat adds that it’s not just a
software service. “We provide video production and photography
for marketing and handle all the shipping,” he says. “So we own
both the backend technology and the retail operations.”

For the founders, this end-to-end platform was part of a wider
goal to disrupt retail patterns. “Crowdemand was built on the
idea of crowdsourcing and creating demand for things users want
but haven’t been created yet,” says Reeis.

Ultimately, the site gives designers like Rowley real-time
insight into what customers are interested in wearing, instead of
what department store buyers want. “It’s another way of going
directly to our consumer,” says Rowley. “This is a proven
model.”